Iran Nuclear Talks: Unfinished, but Alive
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, NYT
The inconclusive negotiations over the weekend on Iran’s nuclear program were disappointing, but two critical points have mostly been ignored. First, diplomacy takes work, and agreements rarely flow seamlessly from beginning to end. Second, if all those inveighing against any deal — namely members of Congress, Israel and Saudi Arabia — see the weekend results as a new opportunity to sabotage it, what is the alternative?
No one has proposed a better path than negotiations, and getting the best deal possible should remain the goal for Iran and the major powers — the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — as they look to another round of talks later this month.
American, European and Iranian negotiators had raised expectations that an interim agreement — one that would temporarily freeze Iran’s nuclear program, while a longer-term agreement was worked on — could be reached. The 11th-hour arrival of Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign ministers at the talks in Geneva added to a sense of a potential breakthrough.
On Monday, what prevented the deal was still in dispute. After Mr. Kerry placed responsibility on Iran for being unprepared to accept a proposed draft agreement, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran said Mr. Kerry’s “conflicting statements” had damaged confidence in a process that all sides had agreed would be conducted in secret. One primary obstacle involves Iran’s insistence that it has a right to enrich uranium (which can be used for nuclear power plants or weapons), something Washington is not ready to concede.
(More here.)
The inconclusive negotiations over the weekend on Iran’s nuclear program were disappointing, but two critical points have mostly been ignored. First, diplomacy takes work, and agreements rarely flow seamlessly from beginning to end. Second, if all those inveighing against any deal — namely members of Congress, Israel and Saudi Arabia — see the weekend results as a new opportunity to sabotage it, what is the alternative?
No one has proposed a better path than negotiations, and getting the best deal possible should remain the goal for Iran and the major powers — the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — as they look to another round of talks later this month.
American, European and Iranian negotiators had raised expectations that an interim agreement — one that would temporarily freeze Iran’s nuclear program, while a longer-term agreement was worked on — could be reached. The 11th-hour arrival of Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign ministers at the talks in Geneva added to a sense of a potential breakthrough.
On Monday, what prevented the deal was still in dispute. After Mr. Kerry placed responsibility on Iran for being unprepared to accept a proposed draft agreement, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran said Mr. Kerry’s “conflicting statements” had damaged confidence in a process that all sides had agreed would be conducted in secret. One primary obstacle involves Iran’s insistence that it has a right to enrich uranium (which can be used for nuclear power plants or weapons), something Washington is not ready to concede.
(More here.)
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